The freezing wind and ice storms in Texas and different states this week may very well be one of the vital costly pure catastrophes for insurers on document, costing round $18 billion in injury to properties and companies in accordance with a latest estimate.
Main risk-modeling agency Karen Clark & Co. used catastrophe-modeling software program broadly utilized by insurance coverage corporations to estimate that property insurers may face roughly $18 billion in prices from property injury, The Wall Road Journal reported.
The agency’s chief government Karen Clark informed The Wall Road Journal in an interview Friday that a lot of the injury from the winter freeze stems from frozen pipes and different water-related claims. Quite a few situations of pipes bursting inside properties and different buildings have been reported all through Texas, in accordance with The New York Occasions.
Drivers detour round a water pipe restore crew after a snow storm on February 18, 2021 in Fort Price, Texas (Ron Jenkins/Getty Photographs)
“This occasion has snow and ice, however it’s predominantly a freezing occasion and a lot of the claims are going to be associated to water injury,” Clark mentioned.
Insurance coverage corporations have reported a significant spike in claims over the previous a number of days because the winter freeze ravaged Texas and different states. Insurers mentioned the variety of claims rival the quantity they usually obtain throughout a minor hurricane, in accordance with The Wall Road Journal.
A spokeswoman for house and automobile insurance coverage firm USAA mentioned that they had obtained greater than 30,000 claims as of Friday. A spokesman for house insurance coverage firm State Farm additionally mentioned that they had obtained hundreds of claims from Texas, with a lot of these claims associated to water injury and burst pipes.
The injury was unfold out over 20 states however greater than half of the estimated prices incurred got here from Texas. The winter storm has left 21 individuals lifeless within the state and tens of millions of Texans spent the week with out electrical energy or water, in accordance with the Austin American-Statesman. (RELATED: Texas Governor Calls for Investigation Into Energy Grid As Tens of millions Left With out Energy, 21 Lifeless Throughout A number of States)
Transmission towers and energy strains result in a substation after a snow storm on February 16, 2021 in Fort Price, Texas (Ron Jenkins/Getty Photographs)
“Texas was floor zero of the temperature anomalies,” Clark mentioned. “And it wasn’t simply a part of Texas however the full state. You’ve gotten loads of inhabitants being impacted.”
The estimated $18 billion in damages would make the winter freeze one of the vital costly pure catastrophes within the U.S. as measured by losses to property insurers, in accordance with The Wall Road Journal.
The prices could be much like these confronted throughout Hurricane Ike in 2008, a Class 4 hurricane that additionally ravaged Texas and value roughly $16 billion in property injury by some estimates, The New York Occasions reported.
